Sermon: The Spiritual Rootedness of Wendell Berry and Dolly Parton as an Expression of Universal Salvation

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This is Paul Axton, director of Forging Plowshares and Plowshares Bible Institute.

And in this sermon, I deal with the recent passing of Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry, using them as an illustration of their strong sense of place, which is an interesting entry into the universality of the gospel.

That is, that universality we often think of in kind of simplistic terms as a form of departure or eternal heavenly truths, leaving out the place of the particular.

But, of course, the real universal is inclusive of a particular place.

That is brought out very specifically in the work of Wendell Berry and his theological understanding of what he's describing in Port William.

But I think it's also there in the universal appeal of Dolly Parton, her music, her kind of universal embrace.

There is a sense of a spiritual rootedness in both of their work, in both of their artistry, in the particular appeal of imagination that they're working with.